How Joe Mazzulla delivered his Celtics predators to a basketball apex

How Joe Mazzulla delivered his Celtics predators to a basketball apex originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

“That’s a Komodo dragon?”

Joe Mazzulla has arrived for our Media Day chat in late September, and before we can even explain the shenanigans we have planned — projecting images to spawn conversation with players and coaches on an otherwise tedious day — he’s the one asking questions.

Four different animals, including a killer whale and, yes, a Komodo dragon, are projected on a screen in the theatre we are filming in, and Mazzulla is eager to explain the correlation between the 2024-25 Celtics and apex predators.

“You take a look at this ridiculous narrative that people use, because it’s so easy, of ‘hunted versus the hunter,’ right?” said Mazzulla. “And I think so many times in society, we try to make things either/or. But it’s a both. And you’re never not just one.

“If you take a look at a lion, people may think of a lion as never hunted. But if they let their guard down, if they find an oasis to where there’s hippos and they let their guard down and they’re going to drink, a hippo is going to try to attack it.

“So, there’s a situation of, yes, you may feel like you’re the toughest or the best or the most fiercest, but at any point in time, if you’re not vigilant, you could die. And so I think there’s just a lot of great lessons that can be learned from it.”

And does Mazzulla have a favorite apex predator?

“Killer whales,” he responds immediately. “I think that they are the epitome of the apex predator, right? But, at the same time, they have the humility to make sure they hunt in packs. So that kind of goes to, when you’re trying to build a team, it’s like, ‘I know I’m the best, but I need people around me in order to be even better.’

“So when you see nature live that out — I know I could go kill that seal on my own, but I need the pod to come with me so we could do it tactically. And the tactical approach towards taking down their adversaries is a rather detailed one. Like, there was one the other day where they purposely beached themselves to act like they’re being stranded and then they kill the sea lion.

“So what are you willing to do to go after success and making sure you don’t skip steps in that process? The animal kingdom is about as natural as you can get it when it comes to hierarchy and when it comes to decisions you make, either bringing you closer to keeping your life or decisions bringing you closer to dying. And you’ve got to make the right decisions more times than not.”

Just like that, all the talk about how Mazzulla loves showing animal videos to his players makes complete sense — just as his players all said it would, even if they never imagined watching so much National Geographic at the NBA level.

“I think what I love about [Mazzulla] is how unorthodox he is,” says Kristaps Porzingis. “All the videos that he shows us that are either from a different sport, or might not even be humans, it could be like some whale or something, you know?

“At first you’re kind of like, what’s going on here? What is this? But you you learn the stuff that he’s into, and you learn to love it too. Now everything he puts on, we’re kind of like, ‘OK, what’s the message here?’ Right away we start thinking. And Joe is just — he’s like a strong personality and a little bit different, in a good way. I think that’s why he’s such a good leader for us.”

In retrospect, maybe it’s fitting that Mazzulla got thrust into one of the more uncomfortable coaching changes in recent memory. Installed as interim coach after Ime Udoka’s dismissal near the start of training camp in 2022, Mazzulla navigated a bunch of early bumps in the road without ever losing sight of steering his talented team towards the ultimate prize.

“The most Joe thing to me is, he gets to the end result he’s looking for. How he gets there, I would say, might be more unique than others,” said Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, the man who installed Mazzulla as coach and stood behind him through tiny patches of turbulence.

“But he gets to the end result and he’s always thinking about how to motivate. He’s always thinking about how to get the most out of people. He’s never thinking about what just happened, good or bad. He’s always thinking about how we’re gonna take this and we’re gonna become the best that we can be.

“He’s the right person to lead this team in this moment. And I thought he was the right person to lead us to the last moment.”

It’s early February and Xavier Tillman’s world has just been turned upside down. The 25-year-old big man is being traded from the struggling, injury-depleted Grizzlies to the championship-chasing Celtics and he’s trying to wrap his head around everything, including having to move his wife and three young children to a new city.

Then came a call from his new coach.

“First thing he said to me was, ‘Don’t be weird,’” Tillman recalled with a laugh. “That’s his opening line: ‘Don’t be weird.’”

That’s Joe. He’s direct. He makes things uncomfortable, even when telling someone else to not make things uncomfortable.

“I was like, ‘Hmm, what does that mean for me? Like, why do I not be weird?’” said Tillman. “And I know I take myself too serious sometimes. So that’s exactly what I thought about. Like, let me like just kind of chill into this versus me like trying to come in and…